TRAINING 15/12/08

TRAINING 15/12/08 by Whispering Jack

Casey Fields is a large sporting complex and while I was already aware of its size, the scope of the sporting facilities down there was emphasized when a few of us were fortunate to get a guided tour from Chris Connolly.

Apparently, the curator is a Demon supporter and he's prepared some fine sporting surfaces out there including the MCG sized main arena that was being used today by the Melbourne Football Club. The other major user is the club's new VFL alignment partner, the Casey Scorpions. One of the first things that stands out is that the seats are coloured red and blue. Chris outlined the plans for future expansion of the ground with an additional stand and terraces on the outer side.

Who knows? One day it might become a boutique stadium for AFL games involving some of the interstaters although, admittedly, that seems a long way off.

The area also has grounds for the local Cranbourne club and its junior teams, a cricket ground used by Premier District Cricket Club Casey-South Melbourne (there's a Lindsay Hassett Pavilion there), soccer fields, a bike track used by the club for player rehab as well as the local bike club which was having some sort of event as we went past. They even have a lake for trout fishing!

All of this is in one of the country's largest growth corridors, and to its east is land for 80,000-100,000 more people (in addition to the large number to come into the area's existing residential zones) under a newly released government growth plan. There are also plans to extend the Cranbourne rail line all the way to the ground with a possible future station at its doorsteps.

A state of the art aquatic centre to be situated almost across the road is under construction. Next door to that is an existing indoor faciklity that includes tennis, basketball, netball and ten pin bowling, facilities that will be available to the club for wet weather training.

The club will be making a great contribution in the form of contact with the local community and this was already in evidence as a class of schoolchildren were entertained later in the morning by Chris and other Melbourne people including Robbo who is still undergoing rehab for that snapped Achilles but who gladly joined the group when one of the kids said he was their favourite player. Connolly’s response was something to the effect that “he’s a good singer!”

If the exercise was only to help develop a fan base for a club that has the least support in the country according to statistics, then the Casey prohject seems to already paying dividends.

Down to the football training and my first impression after just a few minutes was the fact that most of the players were hitting targets far more regualrly than at training sessions from the equivalent times two and three years ago. Granted that there was far, far less pressure on today than they will have in an actual game situation, it’s clear that the focus of the club’s recruiting has been on players who can not only get the football but who have quality disposal skills by hand and by foot as well as being excellent decision makers. Takes James Strauss, take Jamie Bennell and take Rohan Bail – they all looked to have classy skills with the football. Sam Blease might be lightly built but he has clean hands, pace and skills and then there’s the young bloke who who has taken Benny Holland's old jumper. This will sound funny but he impressed me the most; he looked as if he loved being out there and was every inch a # 1 draft pick. I think even at that selection, he might prove to be a bargain if you get what I mean.

That was the new blokes although there were a few others – PSD and rookie hopefuls but in the gloomy conditions I didn't really notice them very much. Former rookie lister Danny Hughes who has been dogged with injury was one I did recognise and he was not out of place.

A couple of tall blokes in Stef Martin and Jake Spencer looked impressive with their size. The way Martin was being used in one of the drills suggested that he might be tried up forward this year and Michael Newton replete with white boots also looked impressive in front of the big sticks. Another of the young blokes who looked good was James Frawley (he's built up and looks much stronger) while Flash and Aussie were showing off their pace and skill.

Of course, it's a different thing when players are tested under full match pressure but that's a long way off yet which is a good thing because there were a few blokes either not training or on a lighter load. I didn't see Brent Moloney while John Meesen, Colin Sylvia and Robbo were taking things easy and Simon Buckley was on the sidelines. So was Adam Maric who was jogging around the oval. Paul Johnson, Colin Garland, Brock McLean, James McDonald and Jared Rivers took part in limited training work.

The boys are off to Mansfield later in the week and won't be back in full training until after the break. By that time they will be a little over a month away from the first NAB Cup game.

Bring it on!

The scene at training this morning. Hopefully, I'll be able to give Andy his camera back tomorrow and the films inside will be half decent